


On Her Wedding

by Mercenary



Category: Violet Evergarden (Anime)
Genre: Complicated Relationships, F/M, Jealousy, Love/Hate, Marriage, Resentment, possessive thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 04:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14887289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercenary/pseuds/Mercenary
Summary: The Church is full when he hides away at the back. To observe a new beginning, and for him to witness the end of one story. He cannot wish her happiness, not for the reasons he wanted to believe.  Love and hate are far too  deceptive.





	On Her Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> Same drill. Written, not edited. One-shot. I guess I love writing complicated Dietfried \o/.

At the back of the small Church he stood watching. Hidden from view by the statue of some holy figure he had never cared to learn the name of.  Watched, as the golden-haired bride dressed in flowing ivory silk, walked down the aisle on the arm of the retired Lt Colonel Hodgins.  To the rapture of a beaming dark-skinned groom waiting for her at the altar.

Tiffany had dared contact him to give the news.  Of course, his distant cousin hadn’t known that he knew, given how closely he’d followed her life from afar over the years. 

Today was the day when Violet Evergarden wed some man from _Eustitia_. A former battle doll turned Auto Memory Doll entering marriage to a short and rather unimposing expediter. If anything, he ought to have found it outright amusing as he watched them meet at the altar.  At her throat remained the ever-present emerald that was a mirror image of the eyes of someone long gone.

 _She carried it still, even into holy matrimony with another man,_ Dietfried noted. Watching the ceremony unfold in place of the one who would have been disgustingly overjoyed to be here.  That was why he had come: for his brother Gil’s memory to be honoured. For no other reason would Dietfried have come. 

Except, even he knew that to be a lie.

Lovely and resplendent in all her wedding finery, she made the most beautiful of brides. As if the blood that stained her hands was wiped clean and rendered non-existent after all these years.  Somewhere along the line, Dietfried had softened, if he could stand here without the disgust and anger. 

As the priest droned on about the responsibilities of matrimony, something in his chest tightened painfully. 

If she weren’t a tool, she had to be just a woman. 

So many years of blame and hatred were impossible to ever fully let go. Dietfried despised the reality that years of contemplation that made him admit she was… a person. No unholy demon or ruthless killer, that knew of nothing but violence, and of being a slave to the commands of others.  She had just been a girl devoid of anything, but for the training to exist for another.  And she had not been that since Gil had set her free with his last wishes…

He couldn’t remember when his feelings had started to change. Somehow, it had started before the attack on the Special Envoy. Back when he had put himself between that girl and the Gardarik rebels.  Angry not just because she was alive and his brother wasn’t, but for the reason; that the life Gil had treasured had not been one she would kill to defend. Dietfried had been furious that she had let herself be put to her knees for an execution.

How ironic that the orphaned girl used as a weapon of war had a full church on her wedding day.   The bridal side overflowing with individuals from across the continent. He even saw the Flugel Queen seated with her husband to witness the marriage of one Violet Evergarden. 

Dietfried would never perform the duties of best man for Gil. Never bounce happy fat babies on his knee, who would call him Uncle. Of course, he had nieces and nephews from his sister. But Violet Evergarden was a reminder of Gil.  A woman who had dutifully visited his mother on a weekly basis when in Leiden.  Nursed her through illness and dementia whenever her work allowed. 

Leiden held little draw to him nowadays, even with his inherited position as Head of the family with Gil’s death.

 _Are you content, Gil?_ Dietfried asked silently. _That your project is now a happy bride that will soon have handsome fat babes of her own._

She truly had grown to be a beauty without parallel.  Even with the twisted mess of his emotions, he could admire the lines of her body, and the way the silken fabric clung to the curve of her breasts enticingly. If they had been different people, in different circumstances, he might have called her sister. 

Dietfried turned on his heel the moment they sealed the marriage with a kiss. Something dark churning deep in his stomach at the sight. It was done and she had aligned herself with that unremarkable man. 

Violet Evergarden had moved beyond Gil’s memory. He gritted his teeth, grinding them in a sudden flash of fury, but he could do nothing as he slipped out the exit.  Fists curled and pinned to his sides in a poor mimicry of control. 

After so many years, he was adrift in an ocean of loneliness. That bond that had connected them together would be severed permanently.  Their sordid past history would be rewritten with her fairy tale ending. 

He had no claim to her any longer.


End file.
